Suomi NPP

Suomi NPP was originally intended as a pathfinder for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program, which was to have replaced NOAA's Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the U.S. Air Force's Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). Suomi NPP was launched in 2011 after the cancellation of NPOESS to serve as a stop-gap between the POES satellites and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) which will replace them. Its instruments provide climate measurements that continue prior observations by NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS). The satellite is named after Verner E. Suomi, a Finnish-American meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The name was announced on 24 January 2012, three months after the satellite's launch. Suomi NPP was intended to bridge the gap between the old Earth Observing System (EOS) and the new JPSS system by flying new instruments, on a new satellite bus, using a new ground data network. Originally planned for launch five years earlier as a joint NASA/NOAA/DoD project, NPP was to be a pathfinder mission for the larger National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) until DoD participation in the larger project was dissolved. The project continued as a civilian weather forecasting replacement for the NOAA Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) series, and ensured continuity of climate measurements begun by the Earth Observing System (EOS) of NASA.